Red, White, and Severely Beaten

Match 9: In the first of Monday's matches Japan played Australia in a very entertaining, yet bizarre match. Australia showed the world that they play a particularly brutal and physical brand of soccer, which was complained about and noted by both Japan and Holland in friendlies leading up to the cup. Australia received 4 yellow cards, and Japan had 3 of their own throughout the match that was often choppy and wide open. Celtic striker Shunsuke Nakamura netted a goal for Japan on a controversial no-call when Australian keeper Mark Schwarzer was picked and bumped by two Japanese attackers inside the six. The score remained 1-0 into the 8oth minute and it looked as though Japan was going to endure. Then in the 83rd minute Aussie strike Tim Cahill netted the equalizer. Then in the 89th minute Australia did the unimaginable when Cahill netted another goal to put the SoccerRoo's up 2-1 after trailing for an hour. Finally in injury time John Aloisi scored the third unanswered goal to complete 3 goals in nine minutes time securing an unbelievable comeback.

Match 10: The much-anticipated U.S. debut against Czech Republic in the opening match for Group E. This match would finally tell if the U.S. side could live up to all the hype and beat a European team on European soil and finally become a force to be reckoned with worldwide. Much to the dismay of Ramble On, Sam's Army, and casual US MNT fans everywhere the United States decided to sit the first match out and let the Czech Republic play a warm up before the play Italy and Ghana. From the first whistle it was clear that the U.S. had no passion, desire, heart, and most of all leadership. Bruce Arena came out with a starting 11 formation that left many scratching their heads. With Landon Donovan and Brian McBride up top the midfield was only Reyna to control the field. The only players who showed any promise were Reyna, and subs Eddie Johnson and Josh Wolff. Donovan was a non-factor generating only 1 quality scoring opportunity; he just never seemed to want the ball. Meanwhile wingmen Beasley and Convey had no confidence to go to goal 1v1, choosing instead to play the ball back to the defense and allowing the Czech defense to reset and prepare for all attacks. Onyewu was supposed to have a breakout tournament, and though he showed flashes of brilliance, he also committed many fouls, picked up an early yellow card, and left his man (6'8 forward Jan Koller) to be guarded by 6'1 Eddie Pope, which resulted in the first Czech goal that broke the spirits and back of the squad. The U.S. played a truly underwhelming, and uninspiring brand of soccer, and dug a hole that will be near impossible to allow them to advance out of the group stage with anything less than victory over the Italians, and Ghana. American soccer fans across the globe are truly disappointed with what transpired on the pitch this evening in Germany, not only does the loss hurt the team, but also puts a damper on any chance of mainstream acceptance of the beautiful game onto the radar of sports fan in the country.